Debate over tighter gun-control laws heats up

These are some of the hard examples of assault weapons used in mass killings in America. After every one of them, lawmakers and the people who elected them debated how to control these weapons of death.

From President Obama who told mourners Sunday that ‘We can’t tolerate this anymore,’ to the people of Newtown, CT, to people in Houston.

School security was also on the mind of St. Louis County Missouri Police Chief Tim Fitch. He says laws will not stop killings, and that it’s time to talk about arming school employees, much like the way airline pilots now carry weapons after 9/11.

Republican Louis Gohmert represents the First District in Texas, which includes Lufkin and Nacogdoches. He says he wishes the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School had been armed with an assault rifle when she met up with the killer.

But the idea of putting more guns in school is not supported by the record number of people who have signed a petition on the White House ‘We The People’ page.

More than 150,000 Americans added their electronic signatures to the petition calling on the Obama administration to offer legislation to limit public access to guns.

Of course, when all else fails, we can always try American’s other love, the love of money.

A youth organization in Oakland, CA, sponsored a weapons buy-back over the weekend. They paid $200 for each piece, up to three guns per person.

The buy-back took more than 200 guns off the Oakland streets, but probably not from anyone thinking about killing a lot of people, or even just one. But, it’s a start.